Here's a list of stories that have verse-by-verse and keyword-by-keyword discussions based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. The discussions reflect our own attempts to synthesize ideas from Swedenborg's writings into simple modern language, but the entries also include key passages from the texts themselves, for those who would like to dig a little deeper.
Adam, Eve and the Serpent
It’s ironic that the story of Adam and Eve is so often in the cross-hairs of the debate between science and faith; according to the Swedenborg, the story itself is, in fact, about that very debate.
Elisha and the Bears
If Elisha would cause bears to attack children – 42 children! – for insulting his hairless head, how can we regard him as a good person? He is described as a “Man of God,” but what kind of God would want this?
Jesus and the Fig Tree
Why would Jesus, in all his perfection, curse a poor defenseless tree for the small crime of having no fruit – especially when, as the version of the story in Mark says, it is not even the season for figs?
Moses, the 'Bridegroom of Blood'
This strange little story has baffled scholars for centuries. Having just told Moses to go to Egypt, Jehovah meets him on the way with the intent of killing him. Why?
Sodom: Violence Toward the Angels
This story has long been used to support negative views toward homosexuality, but in its internal, spiritual sense it’s actually not about homosexuality at all – it’s about evil, temptation, salvation and judgment.
The Beatitudes: A Progressive Path to a State of Love
These verses, the opening phrases of the Sermon on the Mount, hold some of the Bible’s most beautiful and best-loved poetry. Part of its beauty, though, lies in the fact that the meaning is not quite clear.
The Parable of the Unjust Steward
The steward has been wasting his master’s goods, and under threat of being fired goes scrambling around settling debts on the cheap. His motivation is rotten... And for this he gets praised!
The Word Was God: The Answer to 'Why?'
The beautiful but cryptic words of these passages open the book of John, the most beautiful and cryptic of the gospels. Scholars have long pondered them, wondering why John would call Jesus “the Word” and what it means to say “the Word was God.”
Walking on Water
Did Jesus walk on water just to amaze the disciples and to amaze the reader? Or did it have some deeper meaning?
The 23rd Psalm: Showing the Path to Heaven
According to Swedenborg, the symbolic power of this Psalm is connected to precise internal meanings. When we see them, the poem becomes powerful on a whole new level -- because what it actually describes is the path to heaven, and the fierce desire the Lord has to lead us there.
Cain and Abel: A Murder of the Heart
The story of Cain and Abel has been inspiring art and literature for centuries, and it’s not hard to see why... Where Adam and Eve seem otherworldly, Cain seems all too human.
Water into Wine: A Transformation of Truth
As the first miracle of Jesus, turning water into wine marked the beginning of his public ministry. On a deeper, it showed that deeper spiritual ideas would transform the relationship between God and humanity.